Accuray Inc., a manufacturer of radiation oncology equipment, showcased some new technologies at this year's ASTRO show and conference, which took place at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, September 14 - 19.

Full-Body Radiosurgery

On display was Accuray's new collimator, the InCise Multileaf Collimator (MLC) for the CyberKnife System. The robotically mounted collimator is the first of its kind and offers a 10 cm by 12 cm nominal field size. It has received FDA approval and CE mark, although it's not currently available for full commercial shipment. Accuray says it's currently being evaluated at some customer sites. The CyberKnife System utilizes a robot developed by KUKA, a leading manufacturer of industrial robots.



Accuray told DOTmed that the new MLC offering is anticipated to provide faster treatments than the previous collimators of the CyberKnife. It allows the CyberKnife to expand the applications of SBRT, IMRT and SRS, the latter being a hot topic at this year's show with the announcement of a partnership between ASTRO and AANS to develop a stereotactic radiosurgery patient registry.

Tomotherapy
Also on display was the TomoEDGE Dynamic Jaws. The technology allows for changes in primary collimator size during the procedure, allowing for finer focus of radiation on the tumor with sharpened dose penumbra.

TomoEDGE Dynamic Jaws can be used in combination with helical or fixed angle deliveries. The new beam collimation capabilities of the TomoHDA System further improves upon the already high quality dose distributions achievable with past generations of TomoTherapy Systems.

The TomoTherapy product offering became part of Accuray’s portfolio in the first half of 2012 when it acquired TomoTherapy Inc. Since then, the company has made substantial investments in the technology, releasing the TomoTherapy H™ Series to the market, which includes the TomoHDA product. The company celebrated its 500th installation in May of this year.

Other new features include VoLO Treatment Planning, which leverages graphics processor technology developed in the gaming industry. “It takes optimization time from hours down to just a few minutes,” Corey Lawson, TomoTherapy Brand Director, told DOTmed News. “For example, a head and neck case which once required hours of calculation time can now be completed in less than 10 minutes. In achieving this, we are seeing our customers try new things to achieve even faster and better delivery plans,” Lawson says.

Lawson also pointed out other improvements the company invested in. “We now have our own linear accelerator design, made significant improvements to the magnetron, and have incorporated a new dose stability servo into the system. The culmination of all of these efforts can be seen in our industry leading mdBuyline ranking,” he said.

Ultimately, the improvements have helped our clinical partners achieve exceptional dose distributions that can be delivered very efficiently, and significantly improved reliability,” according to Lawson. “TomoTherapy is now the mainstream radiation oncology product customers have always wanted,” he said.

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